Besan – A Wholesome Flour

Gram flour, more popularly known as Besan is a highly nutritious food which provides us with tons of health benefits. Thanks to its high protein content it can easily be consumed by vegetarians to fulfil their protein needs. It not only is useful inside but also outside the body. From ancient times besan has been used as a home-made face pack to remove tan and to lighten the skin. Being such a versatile item, besan has found a permanent place in our kitchens. All of us have had the pleasure of tasting the different yummy dishes made with besan as it is a favourite ingredient for Indian home-made healthy snacks option – ‘pakodas’.

How to Make Perfect Besan Ladoo

• To a heavy bottom pan, add ghee and let it melt on medium heat. Once the ghee melts, add besan to the pan. Stir and set heat to low.
• Mix the besan and the ghee together, at first it will form a clump. Do not panic and keep stirring, it will start to loosen up a bit around 7 to 8 minutes.
• Then it will continue to become loose and light, keep stirring on low heat. Do not stop stirring else besan might burn. This definitely is a good hand workout
• Keep stirring continuously on low heat. Besan will continue to loosen up and after around 15 minutes, it will turn into a smooth paste like consistency.
• I roasted the besan for around 25 minutes on low heat until it had a nice golden-ish color. Your kitchen will also be filled with a aroma by then. You can also taste test the besan to check for doneness. This time may differ depending on several things like thickness of pan, intensity of heat etc.
• Remove pan from heat and stir it after removing from the pan for around 5 minutes until it cooled down a bit. In total let the besan cool down for around 10 minutes, you don’t want it super hot before adding sugar.
• Then add bura. If you don’t have bura, just pulse some granulated white sugar in a blender and use that. Also add cardamom powder and chopped nuts if using. Mix until everything is well combined.
• Now, pinch a small portion from the dough and press between your palms. Then roll between your palm to form a round shape. Make all ladoos similarly. Store them in an airtight container.